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The pair began a sexual relationship after their departmental Christmas party at the Radisson Hotel in Tottenham Court Road in December 2007.

Just over a month later, Miss Prowse, a single mother with a teenage daughter, from Brixton, south London, became pregnant.

Erin, from Kensington, west London, urged her to take an early abortion pill because they “were not ready” and a child would destroy their relationship.

Giving evidence at Erin’s trial at the Old Bailey yesterday, the blonde secretary broke down in tears as she described the confrontation.

“He told me that we couldn’t have the baby, that I didn’t have the choice, that it wasn’t a baby, it was just a cell, that it was pre-life,” she said.

“Aside from being really confused having just found out, my first reaction was that I didn’t want to have the abortion. I felt guilty about having (the previous abortion). I felt I had made the wrong decision then and I didn’t want to do it again.”

Asked what her lover told her about their future, she replied: “He said he wanted us to have a future and that he loved me and there were so many things we could do together. He wanted to take me skiing. He said that if I had the baby we would not be

ble to do any of those things, that if I had the baby it would destroy him, that it would kill him, that he would have to leave work.”

She said that in the days that followed, Erin bombarded her with text messages urging her to have an abortion.

In one, he wrote: “I’m so sad and in such a dark place. I want to die but that would be selfish.”

In another, he wrote: “Please don’t destroy us love. You said you loved me and would do what I said was best.”

On February 1, Erin stayed with Miss Prowse at her flat and she told him she had decided to keep the baby.

In the morning, offered to make her a cup of tea.

“It was unusual because it was me usually that made the drinks,” she told jurors.

She said that Erin prompted her at least three times to finish her drink.

“Ed said: 'don’t forget to drink your tea,’ and said it again and then said 'your tea’s going to go cold’,” she said.

As she drank the tea, she said she noticed a yellow powder covering the bottom of the mug. She said she told Erin, who took the cup from her and washed it up, telling her it was lime scale.

“I was quite shocked and didn’t know what to think,” she said. “My head was racing and I was thinking that I had never seen anything in my cup of tea like that before and I drink loads of tea.”

In the days that followed, Erin bought her a Starbucks coffee then an orange juice. She avoided drinking both and took samples to the police, who identified a series of drugs known to cause miscarriages in pregnant women.

Erin was arrested shortly afterwards. His wife later told police she had found him grinding pills in their kitchen, which he said were for a work experiment.

Erin denies one count of procuring poison, one of administering poison and two of attempting to administer poison, all with the intent of procuring a miscarriage. The case continues.